I know that we all feel this lack of precipitation in unique but acute ways: farmers that source campus dining have been ending contract negotiations with the caveat "if there is water;" our community fruit gleaning project is moving forward with "the hope there is fruit;" restaurants will open up again "when visitor numbers go back up;" my artist friends will see beauty again "when there is snow;" and my laid-off colleagues in the ski industry will be able to make rent "if there is work." No matter how you slice it, our lack of winter is painful to each of us.

According to the National Resources Conservation Service, as of 1/22/18 we are 38% of average snowpack, which provides roughly 50-80% of the water supply for the Mountain West. Whether this particular winter drought is a direct manifestation of climate change or a tale of what is to come as predicted by regional climate models will become clearer with each passing year. If we want to be honest with ourselves, though, we must recognizes that we very well may be on a trajectory where shorter winters, higher snow lines, and more erratic snowpacks are more of a norm than an anomaly.

I refuse to acquiesce to this future. I want our farmers to be successful, I want our rivers to run, I want our restaurants and ski hills to thrive, I want our junipers to turn back green and I want to be a ski patroller again. Strategists have pointed that a lack of climate action from government, private industry, and private citizens alike stems from the inability to see the problem or feel its impact on a local level. In an earlier article, I cited the Yale Climate Communications research that ties our 'climate blindness' to a gap in communication - we never actually connect-the-dots between from climate change to the environmental phenomenon we experience and the resulting societal impacts. Simply put, we need to call a spade, a spade. Yes weather changes every year, but these extremes are what modeling has foretold for some time. There is never going to be a firm line to cross - "this was the year before climate change and this was the year after" - the problem doesn't work that way. The swings in extreme winters are providing us with a very real, very tangible way to connect climate change to local weather. It is time to get loud, my friends. Lets talk with our elected officials, our bosses, our neighbors, and our families about what we are seeing. Let's look honestly about the impacts of this weather and the connections to climate change. Most importantly, how - if we start to make big changes now - we can still bring winter back to the San Juans.

Rachel Landis

Telluride Ski Patroller & Coordinator of the Environmental Center